The design of
the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart
(TAH-t) is a technological marvel, yet the heart is
elegantly simple in appearance. The size and shape of
the artificial heart is designed to fit in the space
of the removed diseased ventricles. The device fits
in a majority of adults and some larger adolescents.
The CardioWest TAH-t utilizes a partial fill and full
eject mechanism. As patients exercise, their muscles
and blood vessels contract causing more blood to fill
the ventricles which is then fully ejected with each
artificial heart beat. The TAH-t is able to pump high
volumes of blood (up to 9.5 Liters per minute) safely
through the body while minimizing contact with non-human
surfaces. These design features combined with state
of the art surgical and anticoagulation regiments have
resulted in good outcomes and have minimized complications.
*In the pivotal clinical study of the
CardioWest TAH-t, which was published August 2004 in
the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM 2004; 351:
859-867), 79 percent of patients receiving the TAH-t
survived to transplant, the highest survival rate for
any device.
|
